A number of current factors regarding demand and usage of data communications and communications systems point towards a need for satellite systems serving consumers, enterprises and carriers. This includes evolving user expectations, the changing nature of Internet traffic, the devices by which end users get service, and the available communications technologies.
Consumers in developed nations expect ubiquitous voice and broadband connectivity. Businesses are driven to provide guest Wi-Fi services. Carriers provide Internet access service on commercial aircraft and trains. Satellite broadband expands service coverage to areas without adequate terrestrial capacity. Video streaming demands can only be satisfied by high-throughput spot beam satellite (HTS) systems, with further leverage of Ka-band spectrum, and ultimately, Q and V-bands. These capacity demands need improved modulation and coding schemes that high-performance satellite systems can provide, along with techniques such as interference cancellation and real-time coordination to increase spot beam frequency reuse. Expanded use of aeronautical and terrestrial mobile services leads to further capacity demand. User mobility and expectation of service continuity also drives interoperability between satellite and terrestrial wireless systems, and deployment of VSATs to connect to remote wireless hot spots.
Internet access has also become an economic and social necessity in developing nations, and users are likely to employ the same bandwidth-hungry mobile devices (e.g., smart phones and tablets) as in-place in already developed markets. This will drive demand for increased spectrum availability and broader data communications coverage. Internet traffic changes are affecting both satellite and terrestrial network evolution. Video traffic is growing faster than the available allocated spectrum. Many users are “cutting the cord” and relying on Internet VoIP and video chat in place of traditional land line telephones. “Cloud” storage and backup services are contributing to new upload traffic volume. These changes have spurred development and deployment of 4G and 5G terrestrial technology, and will similarly require more forward and return capacity from HTS systems.
HTTP and HTTPS protocols are now used for software updates, video downloads, video chat, cloud backup uploads and other functions, in addition to interactive Web browsing. Consequently, a simple examination of packet headers to recognize and prioritize interactive traffic is no longer effective for home or business QOS. Forward looking systems must make use of traffic flow monitoring and characterization techniques, such as deep packet inspection to provide adequate differentiated prioritization for conversational, interactive, streaming, and background traffic. Growing use of HTTPS might deter satellite systems from using man-in-the-middle proxy techniques to pre-fetch and cache interactive Web content. Therefore, other methods will be needed to optimize performance for encrypted Web browsing to mitigate the impact of longer delays across GEO satellite links.
Accordingly, there is thus a need for communications system architectures and methods for simultaneous use of multiple available wireless and wireline access technologies, such as high capacity regional GEO systems and broader coverage LEO systems, to provide improved performance to the end-user.